You remember the Tudors? Before flashy Henry VIII and sparkling Elizabeth came Henry VII. Thanks to good timing and award-winning accountancy skills, Henry Tudor created a mighty dynasty.
Will Ainscough, 34-year-old managing director at Himor, and son of Langtree and Wain Group boss, Bill Ainscough, is keenly aware of Henry Tudor. A graduate in medieval history, Will Ainscough says Henry is his favourite monarch, one who never got the credit he deserved.
It is a revealing choice. Using the same mix of shrewd timing and intelligent book-keeping, young Ainscough is building a dynasty of his own.
In the past six months, he has become the poster boy for private investors grabbing their chances in the English regions while the big institutional investors sit on their hands.
Now digesting the £22.9m purchase of Manchester’s iconic 71,000 sq ft Ship Canal House, and preparing for more buys, Ainscough and his new vehicle, Stratmor, seem set on a path for growth.
Expected to progress
He comes from one of the wealthiest and best-connected property dynasties in the North. Describing his relationship with father Bill’s Langtree, he says: “I wasn’t really given the option to go into the family business. I was expected to go and find things and progress.”
Even so, there is no doubt that a well-known name opens doors, especially in Manchester’s famously clubby property market.
Himor grew out of WR Estates, founded in 2010 by Ainscough and brother Richard. The 100,000 sq ft office block at 40 Spring Gardens and the 37,000 sq ft St James Court – both personal assets owned by father Bill – were rolled into the business to create Himor. Simultaneously, Richard moved to Langtree. Today, father Bill and son Will own the business.
With net assets worth £35m, and gearing of 50%, Himor is in a strong position – one which is enhanced by family lines of credit. The aim is to have a £120m portfolio within five years divided between 20 properties.
The £47.5m unloading of 40 Spring Gardens in 2010 provided the cash for Himor’s last busy six months.
“The building represented too much exposure for us,” says Ainscough. “It was a big asset, with just two tenants, and represented too large a proportion of the portfolio to us to take the risk.”
Ship Canal House, with its smaller floorplates and mix of tenants, was less risky and cheaper at £22.9m. “Strictly speaking, it didn’t fit our asset profile, which is for lots of £2m-£6m, but it was just too good to resist,” says Ainscough.
The proceeds of the 40 Spring Gardens sale bought a 52,000 sq ft suburban shopping centre at Bramhall for £5.5m. Another £2.8m was spent on buying 18,000 sq ft Clarence House in Manchester city centre. It has also left the company with money in the bank, while a £13.8m refinancing of Ship Canal House, agreed with Co-Operative Bank, has given it room for manoeuvre.
Prudence is Ainscough’s watchword, a virtue he says he learned advising pension funds at Healey & Baker. “Perhaps 15-20% of the gross value of the portfolio can be exposed. Everything else has to be let,” he says.
For the moment, the aim is to consolidate existing stock and look to buy in late summer, mainly in the North West. That means letting the ground floor and a 5,800 sq ft floor at Ship Canal House. City pundits say there is plenty of scope to nudge rents up from £18-19 per sq ft to above £20 per sq ft.
When the time comes to buy, good-quality industrial property in Warrington, Wigan, Haydock and Trafford Park will be on Himor’s hit list.
The firm may also make another effort to break into the Leeds and Birmingham office markets, where £3m-£4m bids last year came to nothing.
And the future? Earlier this year strategic land business, Stratmor, was spun out of Himor. Under managing director Mike Riding, the subsidiary will take risks that the parent investment business dare not take. It has a £10m war chest.
Ainscough explains: “We have a strategy for the next five years and, of course, it all depends on the economy, but I’d like to see us step up from £2m-£6m lot sizes to £4m-£10m lot sizes.”
The vision is to eventually become an investor/developer, and to aspire to attract larger property firms and institutional investors to work with the company. “Of course, we’re miles off the kind of track record that will attract them yet,” he says. “Development is way off the brief, too, but one day I’d like to get involved.”
He will get there quietly and patiently. Ainscough says: “I like the long-term aspect of property investment and management – everything from improving the rent roll to eventual reuse of a building or site. And I like getting involved in the detail, even down to making sure the reception area feels right.”
An ambitious, well-funded family, backed by a network of friends and relations around Lancashire?
You do not need a degree in medieval history to see the similarities between the Ainscoughs and the Tudors.
CV: Will Ainscough
1978 Born
1996-99 University of Manchester
1999-00 Gap year in Australia
2001-05 Healey & Baker, London
2005-10 Ainscough family businesses
2010-11 WR Estates
2011-present Himor
The tycoon cousins
Will Ainscough’s father Bill, and Bill’s cousin Martin, are the joint heads of the ramified Ainscough property family empire.
Martin Ainscough and family, ranked 81st on the EG Rich List with assets of £205m, are the power behind Ainscough Strategic Land.
Martin and brothers James and Brendan owned and ran Wigan-based Ainscough Crane Hire, founded in 1976 by Martin’s father (and Bill’s uncle – Will’s great uncle) Gerard Ainscough. The business was sold in 2007 for £255m.
Bill Ainscough founded Wainhomes in 1973 and sold it to Wilson Connolly in 2001 earning £44m. He then re-acquired parts of it, and now trades as Wain Group.
He also owns Langtree, where profits are up. The rent roll is £15m pa from a 4m sq ft portfolio.
